


The Dash

by TheColdSpaghetti



Series: Mass Effect AU [2]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 07:56:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15904119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheColdSpaghetti/pseuds/TheColdSpaghetti
Summary: My first work on AO3, sorry for the lack of context, will post another with all the information needed.It's the Dash, but it's not from Shepard's perspective, instead from an OC of mine while Shepard activates the Crucible."The smell of smoke and death permeated everything, even reaching inside the truck with its skeletal fingers of burnt out promises and still hearts." Just a sneak peak, enjoy :)





	The Dash

**Author's Note:**

> (Aviant) Galbitrix: Chariot of the Aviant equivalent of gods.
> 
> (Aviant) Loritux: Soul.
> 
> (Aviant) Tsol Tsun: Literal; Soul mate. To aviants its a much deeper connection, but the closest equivalent is soul mate.
> 
> (Aviant) Tilivasirs: Warrior Spirits, they are the Aviants shield and sword in death and life.
> 
> (Aviant) Kiriah: Warriors.
> 
> (Aviant) Lougatash: Spirits that collect the dead.
> 
> (Aviant) Limitas: Divine Beings.
> 
> (Aviant) Hiqas: A collapsible sword gifted to special forces operatives upon gaining their designation.
> 
> (Aviant) Kahak-Nischk: Eternal sleep, a death where they have a choice to accept. 
> 
> (Aviant) Kihir: Male Aviant past twenty

The smell of smoke and death permeated everything, even reaching inside the truck with its skeletal fingers of burnt out promises and still hearts. With every breath Benjamin inhaled, it worked its way into his head, promising the destruction of everything he loved. He closed his eyes, trying to block it out, trying to push it out, but he was interrupted by the jostling of the truck and the groaning that accompanied it. “You know Shepard, next time you ask me to come along on one of these merry little missions, remind me to stuff my armour full of pillows.” Garrus Vakarian, what was he doing here? Then it all came rushing back to him, snapping him straight up in the chair, his wings flaring ever so slightly. He sat in a truck full of friends, going to what was most likely their death. His eyes moved rapidly, scanning faces and bringing himself back into the present a little slower than he had a moment before. Curious looks met his sudden movement, and concern sat evident among some faces, but all eased at the sight of a slight, but bright smile of my making. These half dozen __kiriah__ were some of the bravest people Benjamin had ever met, and he felt humbled to include them among his friends. A snort came from his left, and he turned to see Javik looking at him, clearly finding Ben’s emotions amusing.

“You two should probably stop staring into each other’s eyes, I can feel EDI’s jealousy from here.” Shepard’s jab came in the relieving form of humour, and when he turned his eyes to EDI she simply shrugged, her metallic face giving away nothing. “I would never fall for a primitive, much less one who is joined with a machine.” Ben clutched his chest in mock pain. “I really thought we had something for a moment there Javik, but now I see how it is.” Javik just grunted, not willing to give away his soft interior. Ben turned back to EDI, her eyes much easier to read now, the mirth held within them coming to the forefront. “Keelah Garrus, I think I’m going to be sick if you keep making bedroom eyes at Shepard.” Garrus’ mandibles drooped a little in embarrassment, relationships still new to Garrus despite having been in one for quite some time. Tali’s goal fulfilled, she went back to humming and nervously checking her shotgun. A comfortable silence rested over the truck for a time, until the last of our crew made themselves known. “I can’t help but feel like this is the wrong time, but I really need to pee.” Everyone in the truck groaned. “Kaidan, I thought you pissed before we left the FOB, and probably back at the missiles like the rest of us while we were swarmed by those Banshees.” Shepard was right, this war made very little use for toilets, the new monsters the Reapers conjured up making lavatories a moot point. “I, uh, I did, but this truck is throwing me around and my bladder is not enjoying it.” No one stepped up to answer, EDI instead pulling a water bottle off of her belt and offering it to Kaidan.

Kaidan shook his head, deciding to keep his last shred of pride. For a few more moments, silence reigned and Ben’s mind drifted to happier times, but was interrupted by the screeching of metal and the spinning of wheels. Anderson and Shepard jumped out of the truck, the opening of the hatch allowing the smoke to crawl it’s whole body into the truck, a __Lougatash__ come to take the dead. He shook the gnawing of fear on his stomach away with a shake of his head, and exited the truck to stand by Shepard. Ben extended his cramped wings, stretching them for the first time in an hour. Then, once everyone had exited the truck, he glanced over at his beloved, covered in soot and dirt, but still the most beautiful person he had ever seen. She looked at him, a smile reserved only for him on her face, her visor flashing away for a mere second, then re-appearing with Shepard’s simple order of ‘run’ and run they did. It was like a race, a deadly race with no winners, just finishers, and those who didn’t finished were obliterated by the Reaper above, that had uncannily descended upon the gathered forces making a run for the beam. EDI was ahead of him, running alongside Shepard, two __tilivasirs__ running to strike down the opposing god. He had no time to check on the others, he required all his concentration just to watch where EDI and Shepard were going, following them blindly into what he hoped wasn’t his death.

Turns out, hope was fragile, and it was all lost in a few pathetic seconds. Ben had managed to catch up to Shepard and EDI, urging Shepard to go faster, his own bull headedness pushing him even further forward and dragging Shepard with him. Even EDI fell behind, and when he heard a single scream, of a pitch he had never quite heard before he realised he had made a grave mistake in doing so. He slammed on the brakes, using his wings to slow him even more, and turned back to see a Mako laying where his __Tsol Tsun__  had been moments before, he looked around frantically, a lover looking for his other half, and spotted her metres away from the crash, one of her arms melted to slag and her visor not functioning. He could see all of his friends standing or laying nearby, in varying states of injury, but his mind becoming a single track, and all it could think of was his __Tsol Tsun__ laying alone and hurt. He could hear Shepard radioing for the Normandy, and saw her rushing for Garrus while Tali did her best to help Javik. Just as he reached her he let out a single choked sob, and reached for her with a single hand, and touched her on the cheek ever so gently, worried that if he allowed himself the shove he wished to apply she would crumble to ash. Upon his touch a single eye fluttered open, a single speck of hope in what had been a hopeless galaxy mere moments before. He looked around, seeing the Normandy land, a __galbitrix__. He scooped up his beloved, and carried her the short distance to the Normandy, he wished he could have spoken to her, to have heard her say goodbye, but her mouth was melted shut, and he did not have enough time to allow her to speak through the ship.

“My love for you is unbridled, and be it if I die here my __loritux__ will watch over you until the moment of your death. I love you.” He finished, what would probably be his last words to her, and handed her over to a soldier standing nearby. He instructed the soldier to take care of her, and take her to the AI Core immediately. He laid his hand on her forehead one last time, and then he left her. He retreated to the ramp to help Tali drag Javik onto the Normandy, Javik protesting that this was his place to stay. Kaidan came up behind me, injured as the rest of them, and took my place. I muttered a few quick words to them, a final goodbye to friends. I looked over at Shepard who was clearly saying her goodbyes to Garrus. I looked away, letting them have their private moment. He departed the ramp, giving the Normandy one last look, and set off back to his run for the beam. Within moments, the Normandy was flying above him, and Shepard was by his side. A red beam of light, sent by an unmerciful god struck him down.

* * *

Ben awoke amidst a battlefield covered in blood, husks and marauders quickly swarming any soldiers who still drew breath. He could see Shepard, laying face down in the blood, but she was alive. He had to do something before the Reapers closed in on Shepard. He checked himself for a weapon, finding only his side arm in working condition, but that was okay, all it took was a few well placed shots. He picked himself up onto two feet, shaky, pain ridden breaths drawn in and then back out. All he had driving him forward at the moment was the fact that he needed to keep that beam safe for Shepard. A shot fired, a husk’s head turned to mush, his Phalanx still giving the results he loved. Two more shots, and two more husks were dead. He started lining up a shot towards a marauder, his shot impacting the ground in front of him as a pain flares up in his calf. A husk, it’s teeth sunk deep into his flesh. A fist is all that was required here, as it sunk into the brain easily. Turning back to the marauders, who by now had noticed his presence, he swore. He fired of a couple of quick shots, the first piercing one of the marauders shields, the other simply bouncing off. He ducked behind the best piece of impromptu cover he could find, and leaned out and took three more shots. Only one met it’s mark, burying itself into the marauders brain. The other marauder looked at its fallen comrade for a second, then opened fire on Ben’s position. He leaned out again, but he didn’t even need to take the shots as the marauders brain collapsed in on itself. Shepard’s work. He turned and nodded at her.

He looked back, past Shepard. What he saw did not fill him with confidence or reassurance, as a small army approached the duo, consisting of everything from brutes to banshees. The Reaper forces weren’t organised, but their bulk compensated for that. He turned to Shepard. Now was her chance. “Shepard…” He didn’t dare to say another word, in fear of… well, fear. Shepard refused to budge. “Go. Now. I’ll hold, like a boulder against the wind.” Shepard regarded me with the look of a grieving friend. She rested her hand on my shoulder. “Even boulders get worn down by the wind, Ben. Hold like a father desperate to get back to his children.” She gifted him with not only these words, but a real, genuine smile. “Good luck.” Shepard was gone within seconds, her own good luck, in the form of Benjamin, allowing it. He turned back to the assembled horde of Reaper forces, a grimace upon his face. Husks and marauders he could take on, but brutes and banshees he could not. He took a moment to breath, then he fired his first faithful shot. A clean kill on a banshee who didn’t have her barriers up. Another, and another, both pinging off shields and armour, not even slowing down the brutes or marauders he shot. He prayed to the __limitas__ to send down a gift to allow him to hold off more than that one single banshee. He looked around, a moment of belief in the __limitas__ and he found that they had pulled through. Next to him lay a dead human, laden with a Widow sniper rifle and Typhon assault rifle. He let loose a painful breath.

He picked up both weapons, resting the Widow’s barrel on his cover. He looked down the scope, breathing in, breathing out. BOOM! A brute fell, crushing a marauder under it. Another thunderclap, and another brute fell. Ben managed to get off three more mighty shots until he needed to resort to the Typhoon. A banshee closed in on him, and as it closed in he hit with the full force of the Typhoon. The banshee was down within minutes. He held. On the cover he had, he attached a tripod to the Typhoon and pressed his finger down on the trigger. He didn’t move it for a full minute, cutting down marauders and even a few brutes. Brutes were tough though, and he’d missed one. He realized a huge claw swinging into his cover, and he had to dive away, leaving his Typhoon there, to save his own life. Now he was a weapon down. He pulled out his Phalanx, putting at least seven bullets into the brutes head and heart, and the brute went down. He pulled out the Widow again, making quick shots at the thinned horde in front of him. All it took was one shot from a marauder to take him down to two weapons. His Widow in pieces now, his Phalanx and __Hiqas__ were all that remained. His Phalanx had few shots left, and his __Hiqas__ would only be very useful against husks. He used his final shots on the single remaining brute on the field, leaving two banshees and a whole other horde of husks, seemingly coming out of no where. He drew his __Hiqas__ and prepared for the husks, which he knew would hit him first as the banshees stayed back to oversee, only to attack if needed. Ben prepared for the dance of death the __Hiqas__ needed, and moved his weight onto the balls of his heels. As the first husks hit, he spun, decapitating the first husk, and continued to duck, spin, weave and bob as more came, he seemed to be holding his own for a while, until a banshee decided to intervene. He was hit with a warp, his depleted shields and melted armour not able to stop it. He stumbled, and that was all it took for husks to swarm him.

A husk sat on top of his chest tearing at him, as other knelt near him, tearing into his limbs, as he screamed he saw the husk on top of him get pushed off, and for a second he thought he was saved, but that was short lived as a banshee appeared above him. In seconds its claws were in his chest, piercing his heart. Good thing for redundant organs. He could feel his second heart pick up the pace, now being the primary heart instead of the slowly beating back up. He played dead however, in the hope that the banshee would leave him be. It did, but not without consequences. Instead of just dropping him on the ground, it moved over to a small heap of something, inside of which he could see a fire burning inside. The banshee three him onto this pile, his right arm falling into the fire. Not being able to move it without the banshee and husks coming back to finish him off, he bore the pain. When the banshee didn’t turn away he began to panic, and by that point he couldn’t move his arm. It lay in the fire, and the smell of burning flesh filled his nostrils. The banshee above him appeared… pleased, and as he looked up at its smug face, unconsciousness claimed him.

* * *

An unknown amount of time later, he awoke, screaming, a husk clawing its way to his second heart, another gnawing off his burnt arm. He knew he was going to die, and he knew he should say his goodbyes to the universe but coherence was not something that would come to him until the husks clawing and gnawing at him stopped. He screamed, more and more, until his throat was red and he could scream no longer, the husk digging its way to his heart nearly breaching his ribcage. He closed his eyes, the only thing he could do, bracing for the pain that would mean the husk had punctured his ribcage, and as the husk pulled its arm back for another swing, he waited, and he waited. Nothing came. He opened his eyes, the pain not disappearing but the cause. All that was left of his attackers was a faint dust in the wind. He looked around him, Reapers were falling everywhere I could see. She had done it. Shepard had fucking done it. Laying back, gritting my teeth against the pain that still remained, I looked up at the stars, where the Citadel now sat. He smiled, even through the pain, for the briefest of seconds, and then closed his eyes in preparation for the __kahak nischk-__ the eternal sleep. Black consumed Benjamin now, unconsciousness taking back the wheel.

* * *

“Wrex! There’s someone here!” Wrex felt like he had aged six hundred years over the course of this war, but faint hope for a friend drove him forward “Is it him?” His voice was gruff, hoarse. “I’d bet money on it.” Wrex believed then, Miranda wasn’t a betting woman. Wrex rushed over to the rubble Miranda was looking out, and as he saw black feathers peaking out, he dug into the rubble throwing it away like tissue. “Oh my god. He’s still alive.” Cortez was right. Even Wrex was surprised when he saw the injuries. “We need to get him out of here, to a hospital. Now!” Cortez and Miranda nodded, and between Wrex and Miranda they managed to get him back to the shuttle without his organs falling out. “Damned fool, kills one varren and thinks he can take on a maw.” He had the heart and skill of a warrior, but he was still one __kihir__ and against an army he had done his best, but his best wasn’t good enough. Wrex let loose a low growl, one of worry, not menace. Miranda was already hard at work patching him up, but without a hospital, he would die, even with his remaining redundant organs. “Don’t you even think of fucking dying on me Ben. Don’t even think about it.” Wrex snorted, and he couldn’t agree with Miranda more.  

   

**Author's Note:**

> A/N Hey now, this is my first work on AO3, just working my way up to writing a full story of some calibre or another. I will create another work to accompany this so that all the information (species, characters, whatever I haven't explained within) is available and understandable.


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